138 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1682. 



sundry epistles to the settlers and the Indians, besides being sub- 

 jected to various importunities to part with his lands and to 

 confer privileges on terms different from those which he had 

 adopted and published. 



With his mind thus overtasked with questions of the highest 

 moment, would it not have been wonderful if he had committed 

 no mistakes ? Is it not strange that he committed so few ? We 

 may at this day be startled at some of the privileges granted to 

 "The Free Society of Traders;" but may we not, with Penn's 

 limited experience with corporations, believe in the sincerity of 

 his assurance, that it was ''a Society without oppression : wherein 

 all may be concerned that will ; and yet have the same liberty of 

 private traflSque, as though there were no Society at all." Cer- 

 tainly we may concede this much, when it is known that he re- 

 sisted the "great temptation" of £6000 and two and a half per 

 cent, acknowledgment or rent for a monopoly of the Indian trade 

 between the Susquehanna and Delaware with 30,000 acres of 

 land, the Indian title of Avhich to be extinguished by the corpo- 

 ration.^ Penn's ideas of government were greatly in advance of 

 the age in which he lived. The few errors he committed were 

 the result of surrounding circumstances. No friend of humanity 

 can quibble over these, when he reflects upon the mighty impulse 

 that was given to the cause of free government by his many wise 

 and prudent measures. 



Having completed his arrangements in England, Penn sailed 

 from Deal on the 30th of the Sixth month (then August), on 

 board of the ship Welcome, Robert Greenaway commander, in 

 company with about 100 passengers, mostly members of the 

 Society of Friends, the major part of whom were from Sussex.^ 

 Great distress was experienced during the passage, in conse- 

 quence of the breaking out of the small-pox, of which loathsome 

 disease 30 of the emigrants died. Otherwise the voyage was 

 prosperous, the vessel arriving at New Castle on the 27th of 

 October, 1682. On the next day, Penn having produced his 

 deeds of feoffment from the Duke of York for the tAvelve miles 

 surrounding New Castle, and also for the country below, the 

 possession and seisin of the New Castle grant were formally given 

 to him by John Moll and Ephraim Herman, who had been con- 

 stituted attorneys for that purpose by his Royal Highness.^ At 

 the same time, a number of the inhabitants signed a pledge of 

 their obedience to the Proprietary.'' On the same day he com- 

 missioned Justices for New Castle, and constituted Markham his 

 attorney to receive the possession of the territory below from the 

 attorneys of the Duke. 



1 Haz. Ann. 522. 2 Proud. i. 204 ; Janney, 194. 



» New Castle Rec. ; Haz. Ann. 597-606. 



♦ New Castle Rec. ; Patent Buok, Harrisburg, A. 2, p. 121 ; Haz. Ann. 598. 



